#5Books: Book recs and Netflix

Hands up, who is watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, because I find myself completely enamoured of it, and more so than I thought. The kookiness, the feminism and all the while having a sort of retro vibe at the same time makes this thoroughly enjoyable.

Hilda and Zelda are hilarious, though Zelda always looks like she’s one step away of committing unspeakable acts for having to deal with people who aren’t as religiously focused on Satan and darkness as she is — cracks me up every time!

WICCA is far more interesting than Harvey is in general, and I find myself hoping for less Harvey and more of her fabulous friends. But where Sabrina goes, Harvey will always be I guess. (Also Ambrose is ridiculously cute!)

When her ex-husband’s elderly parents go missing on an Australian cruise, Brooklyn travel agent Cyd Redondo heads down under, unaware that her former in-laws disappearance will lead to murder. Once she discovers a body in her cabin, every crew member, guest, and Tasmanian local becomes a suspect. Cyd navigates buffets, discos, waterslides, stowaways, street markets, historic lunatic asylums, and a seaside taxidermist in search of the killer. In the end, who can she trust – her cabin steward, the ship’s gorgeous doctor, the terminally cheerful Cruise director, a former nun, or a nemesis from her past?

Like I was ever going to resist a cozy mystery with the pun-tastic title like this one?! Not to mention, this might be the very first time I’ve ever read anything to do with Tasmania. Or taking place in Tasmania, which is little, but mighty and beautiful and also stupidly cold compared to everywhere else in Australia.

Tasia Quirk is young, Black, and fabulous. She’s a senior, she’s got great friends, and a supportive and wealthy family. She even plays football as the only girl on her private high school’s team.

But when she catches her mamma trying to stuff a mysterious box in the closet, her identity is suddenly called into question. Now Tasia’s determined to unravel the lies that have overtaken her life. Along the way, she discovers what family and forgiveness really mean, and that her answers don’t come without a fee. An artsy bisexual boy from the Valley could help her find them—but only if she stops fighting who she is, beyond the color of her skin.

In keeping with the theme of Australian titles, here is a book named after one of THE soaps in Australia: Home and Away. Set in a beachside town that produces teens who go on to be movie stars AKA Chris Hemsworth, that is.

l Know Who You Are is the brilliant tale of two stories. One is about Aimee Sinclair—well-known actress on the verge of being full-on famous. If you saw her, you’d think you knew her. One day towards the near-end of her shoot on her latest film, Aimee comes home from filming to find her husband’s cell phone and wallet on the dining room table. He never goes anywhere without them. But he’s nowhere to be found. She’s not too concerned—they had a huge fight the night before. They both said things they didn’t mean. He might have done things he didn’t mean, things she can’t forget. Even though she has a history of supposedly forgetting. After all, she’s a very good actress.

The next morning she goes for her morning run and then goes to her favorite coffee shop. But her card is denied. When she calls the bank they say her account has been emptied of $10,000. She immediately suspects her husband. But they say no, it was Aimee herself who closed out the account. And thus begins a bizarre rabbit hole into which Aimee finds herself falling where nothing is at it seems.

Alternating with Aimee’s story is that of a little girl who wandered away from home. We always tell our kids not to talk to strangers or bad things will happen. Well, bad things happen.

In I Know Who You Are, Alice Feeney proves that she is a master at brilliantly complicated plots and twists after twists.

First off, the whole thing with Aimee’s identity is all sorts of weird, yes? But how on earth does her tale connect to that of a young girl who has wondered away from home? With such different characters, you’d hope the link between them is damned epic to work.

Professor Kate Hanson and the Unsolved Crime Unit unearth some shocking findings when they re-examine a 10-year-old murder case.

For the past ten years, David Lockman has been serving a life sentence for the murder of Della Harrington. Now an appeal judge has decreed the forensic evidence unsatisfactory and the original verdict unsafe.

Tasked with re-examining the case, forensic psychologist Kate Hanson and her colleagues unearth serious flaws in the original police investigation. But if Lockman didn’t kill Della Harrington, who did? As they question those involved, it becomes clear that not everyone is telling the whole truth. But have the detectives been working from the wrong assumption from the outset? In following her hunch, Kate makes a professional decision which undermines her colleagues, and threatens her very future with the Unsolved Crime Unit.

This is apparently number 5 in a series, which right there has me cautious but the mystery sounds delicious enough to want to keep this book in mind — right now, every time I see a book that questions a suspect’s guilt, I always assume the suspect is guilty, because that will be the mother of all twists.

Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others claim she’s obsessed and can’t stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter’s expense.

Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, doctors intervene and immediately suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioral disorder where the primary caretaker, typically the mother, seeks medical help for made-up symptoms of a child. Is this what’s going on? Or is there something even more sinister at hand?

Saving Meghan is a riveting new thriller full of secrets and lies from author D.J. Palmer.

Stories like this — with Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy — are disturbing aren’t they? That mothers would do this to their kids? But what could be more sinister than that?

I am off to Byron Bay this Wednesday for a short break, but I will be commenting away when I can. And posting pics on instagram too.

I’ve refused to start Sabrina until I’ve finished Hill House but we’re on episode 8 so it won’t be long. Netflix has been hitting it out of the park this month for sure. I just added Drowned Under to the wishlist. You are right – who can resist that title and the cover doesn’t hurt either. When I investigated child abuse/neglect cases, Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy cases, and I recall at least three, were very scary and very exhausting. I don’t know that I could read about this. Thanks for the recommendations.

I haven’t watched The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina yet. I’m currently binge watching The Haunting of Hill House. Maybe after I’m done with it, I’ll find time to binge watch Sabrina – it quite enjoyed the trailer. It’s very different from what I was expecting.

I actually finished watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on theweekend. I binged almost all episodes on Sunday and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. That last episide left me speechless!